Naishadha-charita of Shriharsha
by Krishna Kanta Handiqui | 1956 | 159,632 words
This page relates Damayanti’s Svayamvara, part 1 which is canto 10 of the English translation of the Naishadha-charita of Shriharsha, dealing with the famous story of Nala (king of Nishadha) and Damayanti (daughter of Bhima, king of Vidarbha), which also occurs in the Mahabharata. The Naishadhacharita is considered as one of the five major epic poems (mahakavya) in Sanskrit literature.
Canto 10 - Damayantī’s Svayaṃvara, part 1
1. Then came to the Svayaṃvara highborn princes in chariots, expert in arms and the Scriptures, beautiful like Cupid’s magic forms,[1] and surpassing Kubera in wealth.
2. No highborn prince was there who was not the object of Cupid’s arrows nor any who did not go; as the crowds of kings were going simultaneously, not even a trace of the earth remained without being a path.
3. As worthy heroes were going to win the princess, the unworthy to carry her away by force, others to see, and yet others to wait on the rest, the directions were left to themselves.[2]
4. All the inhabitants of the directions having departed, with that beauty of the world as their aim, the spaces of the directions felt a relief from the suffering caused by the pressure of these people living in them.
5. So crowded were the highways with soldiers that even sesamum seeds, scattered over them, would not reach the ground; any king who could there manage to make headway felt as if he had already obtained Damayantī.
6. A certain king, with his way barred by those in front of him, and pushed by those behind, deemed himself unsuccessful, though he was in the position of “Successful” seeds[3] pressed in a machine.
7. The flags of the capital of the king of Vidarbha, their free ends fluttering, seemed to beckon the kings who were getting late from their inability to proceed, one after another, owing to the congestion on the way.
8. On the earth, the trotting, white horses of the kings, going in the front, were drawing behind them a richly caparisoned force of elephants going towards Kuṇḍina, which an array of mules followed; while in the nether world the serpent Karkoṭaka, going in the front along with the serpent Kambala, was pulling up Vāsuki’s army of serpents moving towards Kuṇḍina, followed by the serpent Aśvatara.
9. The beautiful faces[4] of those women, the regions of the sky, made pale by the dust raised by the troops of the oncoming kings, clearly manifested an appearance natural to a state of being forsaken by one’s husband.[5]
10. The lords of the directions, Indra, Yama, Agni and Varuṇa—these four, but not the rest[6]—went to the Svayaṃvara, as if pulled by Damayantī, binding them with her virtues as with a string.
11. How could demons enter that city, protected by the incantations of king Bhīma’s priest? So the demon Nairṛta, one of the lords of the directions,[7] never attempted to go there.
12. The Air god,[8] whose conveyance is an antelope, did not betake himself to Vidarbha to marry Damayantī, because he could not bring the animal face to face with her, threatened as it was by her lotus eyes.[9]
13. The crooked Cupid loves not birth, wealth nor virtues, but only beauty; so, Kubera,[10] the god of wealth, witnessing his ugly figure on the transparent mountain, his abode,[11] did not approach the beautiful maid.
14. How could Pārvatī, who forms half the body of her consort Śiva,[11] tolerate the latter’s marrying Damayantī? Abstaining from going to Vidarbha herself, she prevented him from going.
15. Ananta, the lord of the (nether) region, did not go to Damayantī’s Svayaṃvara; for on whom would that serpent who patiently bears the weight of the earth place his burden and go?
16. After due deliberation, the lord of the upper region, Brahma, conversant with the Law-books, refrained from going to the Svayaṃvara. Where in the world has one seen a marriage with a grandfather,[13] prescribed whether in Vedic or legal lore?
17. The lords of the directions, Indra and the others, having heard from their women messengers that they were rejected by Damayantī, went to the assembly of the kings,[14] extending the languor of their hearts to their pace and lotus face.
18. “Damayantī might by chance accept us, mistaking us for Nala”—with this as their last hope, the four gods, Indra and the rest,[15] became a miraculous group of four Nalas, false in character.
19. Of the gods trying to assume his form, no one, observed and questioned by the other, admitted his success in attaining similarity to Nala. What is artificial is, indeed, different from the natural,
20. They made the full moon their face over and again; made also the blooming lotus their face again and again. Then looking at the face in a mirror, they repeatedly broke it up; it was not as exquisitely beautiful as Nala’s.
21. As the gods were then unable to acquire with their face the charm of Nala’s face, the fact of their being ‘analānana’ could not avoid the defect of repetition.[16]
22. They made themselves similar to Nala, as if by means of a quintessence drawn from Purūravas, while consumed by the fire of separation from his beloved;[17] from the moon while crushed by Rāhu; and from Cupid while he was burnt by Śiva.[18]
23. The Creator brought these kings to Damayantī in order that she might see what a difference there was between them and Nala. Making the divine lords of the quarters vie with Nala, he declared Nala’s superiority to them.
24. With the (four) gods, Yama and the others, duplicates of Nala in beauty, all of them wearing heavenly jewels, the assembly looked, Nala being absent, as did the heavens with the four celestial trees, when the Pārijāta went to become the guest of Satyabhāmā’s courtyard.[19]
25. Then came Vāsuki whose body was clear white like the ashy powder decorating Śiva’s body. He was accompanied by shouts of “Be pleased”, “Live long”, common to servants, uttered by a multitude of serpent kings.
26. Kings of divine lands reached that city in a moment from other islands. Was there a youth who was not at that moment turned into cottonwool by the gusts of wind from the feathers of Cupid’s arrows?
27. King Bhīma, the lord of the heaven Kuṇḍina, finely entertained the kings, accommodating them in beautiful palaces, with hospitality, courteous words, gifts, esteem, politeness and the like.
28. In the inner apartment[20] of kings, where Fame, their wife, is made to abide, the four oceans serving as its moat; charity, kindness, pleasant truth, and hospitality—these four are the chamberlains keeping watch over her.
29. None of the kings who were the guests of king Bhīma, the Indra of Kuṇḍina, experienced, in this and that mutually unseen act of hospitality,[21] the slightest distinction, which could serve as an index to what they wanted to know, the attainment of their heart’s desire.[22]
30. Methinks, that multitude was contained in the bosom of the city of the king of Vidarbha, as the ocean was in the palm of Agastya, or the universe in the stomach of Viṣṇu.
31. In that city, on the streets, the doors and houses were decorated in gay colours out of eagerness for the festivities. Even the sky was coloured with many a hue by the rays of the ornaments of the kings.
32. Elegant movements, cleverness (in speech), and the beauty of adornments were present even in their servants to such an extent that women, children and ignorant people took them for high personages coming to the Svayaṃvara.
33. Never sweating, owing to the breeze of Cāmara whisks; never winking, owing to the wonders provided by each object; and, with garlands that faded not owing to their umbrellas, the gods and the mortal kings were not marked by any difference in the city.[23]
34. The gods could not be distinguished by the people among those kings, who, coming from various regions, talked in Sanskrit[24] for fear of their not understanding one another’s dialect.
35. There they passed the days, looking at the various acts of Damayantī, depicted in pictures by the citizens in the city; and the nights with the gaieties of the art of dalliance with her in dreams.
36. Liberal as she was, the virtuous Damayantī did fulfil the wish of the kings who were her suitors. For she gave them the illusion of their winning her, as she on that night appeared to them in dreams.[25]
37. The next day the heroes, summoned with courtesy by the messengers of king Bhīma, adorned the pavilion on the Svayaṃvara site, betraying amorous traits.
38. The assembly then looked beautiful with Nala. Seeing him, Indra considered Cupid to be uncouth, though he was richly adorned.
39. As that moon of a king, with beauty-paint applied to his body, appeared in that assembly, which assumed the beauty of the sky, where did the lustre of that galaxy of stars, the Kṣatriya princes, go, vanishing alas! out of sight?
40. At once the eyes of the kings, eager in amazement, were fixed on him. But, after that, as they knit their brows, the comers of their eyes became full dark with jealousy.
41. “It is a new moon on the earth. Is he a second Cupid? He is a third Aśvin”[26]—thus under the pretext of praising him, the envious kings spoke ill of him.[27]
42. The kings said among themselves, referring to the magic Nalas,[28] “Well, there are so many like him.” The envious, when they are inferior to a rival, find a remedy in likening him to others.[29]
43. That the gods found fault with the fact of his being a mortal, though on account of his beauty the assembly never found fault with him, was certainly a piece of villainy, being the imputation of a sundry defect to one who was worthy of respect for his extraordinary virtues.
44. The real Nala said to the well-dressed bogus Nalas who were sitting near him, “Are you not perhaps Purūravas and Cupid together with the two Aśvins?”
45. At this they said to him, “None of us was born of Ilā.[30] We who are near thee are without Cupid. No one here is an Aśvin.
46. “Know us to be other than they, surpassing as we do Cupid in beauty. Damayantī, going about in this assembly, will by chance be ours among many.
47. “But king, fie on us, present here with hopes. We are still here, adopting a foolish attitude, even after we have seen thy beauty! Fie on our wisdom!”[31]
48. Nala, who did not suspect any guile in their speech, utterly ignored these words. Nothing occurred to him who was absorbed in thinking how to win that jewel of a woman (Damayantī).
49. Whoso wishes to acquire his glory, by rivalling another, himself declares the latter’s superiority to him. Who will not, then, feel an immense contempt for a rival, who himself admits his inferiority?[32]
50. At that moment, Viṣṇu, whose fame and praise were sung by Sarasvatī, and who with the lustre of his body assumed the grace of a cloud, witnessed with joy the pomp of the Svayaṃvara, standing in the sky.
51. At that moment, the (four-faced) Brahmā, wishing to see the assembly, cast his eight eyes in eight directions, (Brahmā) who, without having seen the beauty of the head of the phallic Śiva, made the Ketakī flower falsely declare that he had seen it.[33]
52. The twelve-formed Sun[34] went round the Meru mountain with one form; with another became Viṣṇu’s (right) eye; and with the remaining ten looked at the ten directions full of people.[35]
53. The moon, though it ever goes round the mountain that is the palace of the gods,[36] did not feel any distressing hindrance in witnessing the Svayaṃvara, being itself a spectator in the form of the (left) eye of Viṣṇu.[37]
54. Eager in their fond desire (to see), the nymphs, looking at the splendour of the noble multitude at that moment, spread out lotus-beds, their own faces, over that ocean of people.
55. Did not hundreds of thousands of Yakṣas witness that assembly of finished beauty, or Siddhas occupy it? Did not Kinnaras attend it out of eagerness, or great sages look at it with pleasure?
56. Vālmīki praised the assembly. Through the avenue of his throat, which contained the three Vedas, trees with many a branch, the divine tongue Sanskrit first came to earth from heaven without any effort.
57. The beautiful assembly was also praised by Bṛhaspati, the adversary of all doctrines by means of the Cārvāka philosophy,[38] whose tongue I know to be the throne of the goddess of speech.
58. Śukrācārya described the assembly in poetic language, the sage who guides the policy of the demons,[39] and is a poet, expert in teaching the art of composing wreaths of words, in heaven where the divine tongue Sanskrit doth incessantly play.
59. “Not merely has king Bhīma brought these kings together, nor has Damayantī attracted them; but the Creator has deliberately shown us these youths, the entire wealth of his art.
60. “As, in times of yore, Śiva killed Cupid, because the latter was then alone, are these youths Cupid’s remedy against fear from Śiva, flashing like a multitude of bodies assumed by himself?[40]
61. “The Creator, I ween, kept hidden somewhere the orbs of the full moon, different each month. With these, artist as he is, he created the beautiful faces of these youths.
62. “In vain have they put jewels on their heads, since they themselves are jewels. When the knowledge of the supreme soul spontaneously reveals itself, no other knowledge need be sought for it to dawn.
63. “If the two Aśvins joyfully enter this multitude of highly charming youths, they would not be able to distinguish each other, mixed up with the others, even in thousands of years.
64. “While there are so many clever youths, what harm was there to the world, even if Cupid was burnt? Who doth call the loss of a drop of water to the full ocean a defect amounting to drying up?”
65. As Śukrācārya thus praised the assembly, he was seconded by a singing crowd of Gandharvas with prolonged shouts of ‘Hum’, and by a multitude of sages reading the Vedas with a volume of Oms.
66. Then the king of Vidarbha made those mighty kings occupy numerous thrones where they looked beautiful as the gods on the peaks of the Mountain of Gold.[41]
67. King Bhīma, thinking of them, come from various lands, their character and family worthy of being sung by the gods, grew sad, not knowing how these kings were to be described to his daughter.
68. Being so perplexed, he then recalled, concentrating his mind for a moment, his family god Viṣṇu, who is a wish-fulfilling Kalpa tree in vouchsafing an object, thought of by his devotees.
69. As soon as he recalled Viṣṇu, the god said with a smile to Sarasvatī, “Goddess of speech, let me in this Svayaṃvara ask thee to narrate the family and life story of this multitude of kings.
70. “Thou dost know the family, character and might of these youths, come from. various lands. Do thou fully describe them; is this an occasion for thee to refrain from speech?
71. “This assembly is adorned by the scholars of the three worlds. One like this never was nor will be. Under the pretext of proclaiming the merits of the kings, make these learned men hear thy orations.”
72. Thus addressed, Sarasvatī, accepting the favour of his command as well as the dust of his feet, all that had remained, after being rubbed off by the crown jewels of the gods,[42] bore it on her head with esteem.
73. Then that maiden (Sarasvatī) came down to the midst of the assembly. Her throat was the seat of the art of music. The playful roll of the fleshy folds of her waist was formed by the three Vedas. The ripples of her glances were made up of poetic composition.
74. The Atharva Veda, whose lustre was black, befitting the diverse magic rites (prescribed by it), became a streak of hair on her belly, stretching out, after emerging from the root of the three fleshy folds of her waist representing the three Vedas.[43]
75. The science of phonetics visibly formed her activity. She was adorned with the splendour of the Vedic sacrificial canon. Verily the science of etymology was evolved in the form of explanations of all her meanings.
76. Metres, divided into two classes, on the basis of syllabic instants[44] and syllables,[45] became her two arms. The middle of each arm was neatly marked by the joint of the two sections of the arm, to wit, the pause marking the two halves of a verse.[46]
77. Doubtless the science of grammar composed her girdle, which possessed a breadth caused by the length of the threads composing it, and produced diverse series of sounds.[47]
78. The science of astronomy, resting on her neck to serve her, the science which describes the life of the stars, and is reckoned among the Vedāṅgas, having changed its form, I ween, became her pearlstring, which had a flashing central gem, and was round, and on her person held up in the lap.[48]
79. The two forms of philosophical dissertation, primary objection and final conclusion, both shining with the deep-seated partiality of disputant and respondent each to his own thesis, became her lips, I know.
80. Mīmāṃsā which divides its body of doctrines, effective in the refutation of opponents, into two sections,[49] according to the Vedic divisions, metaphysical and ritual, formed her fleshy thighs charming with excellent clothing.
81. We believe the two chaplets of her teeth, pearls strung together, form the science of logic, resorted to by those who are desirous of salvation, and characterised by sixteen topics mentioned twice,[50] first at the stage of enunciation, and then at the time of definition.
82. The teeth of her mouth are to be considered arguments; otherwise, how could it argue with these, and how could it, in disputes, cut asunder the leaf (of counter-theses), and refute a host of meritorious (opponents)?[51]
83. Full of diffuse narrations, the Purāṇas, falling into two groups, according as they were composed by Vyāsa and Parāśara, and characterised by names such as Fish, Lotus and the like,[52] became her two hands, painted with red lac, and marked by figures of fish, lotus and the like.[53]
84. The law-books, I see, that are free from destruction till the end of time, have the Vedas as their root, and which she knows by heart, have become her head: whom will it not delight?
85. The Creator made her eyebrows with the two sections of the syllable ‘Om’; with the Anusvāra of this syllable, he made on her forehead an ornamental mark, like a Tamāla leaf; while with its Candrabindu he made the bow for playing on her lyre,
86. On her body were formed the two ear-rings with the best portion of the circular terminal script Visarga,[54] the fingers of her hands with the best of golden pens, the lock of her hair with the best of inks, the lustre of her smile with the best chalk.
87. She seemed to have a face constituted by the doctrines of the Kāpālikas, a belly composed of the doctrine of universal void, and a heart formed by the universality of sense knowledge; while her whole frame consisted of the doctrine of sense knowledge having forms.[55]
88. Sarasvatī said to king Bhīma, “An occasion it is for thee to rejoice; useless to sorrow; I shall describe the family and wonderful career of yonder kings.
89. “To narrate the virtues of these kings I have come, obeying merely the command of[56] Viṣṇu, at whose lotus-feet the celestial Gaṅgā plays as the honey of flowers.
90. King Bhīma, of the same rank as the divine lords of the regions, offered due worship to her, knowing from sounds of good omen and the like, cognisable at that moment, that the trusty-goddess had come.
91. Then to the midst of that great multitude of kings, the king called his daughter, who acted as a magic device in the sport of drawing kings from the ends of the regions.
92. She stirred an ocean of amazement in the spectators; which came into being at the sight of the maids in the van, swelled when her friends were by degrees seen, and then surged up on account of the beauty that was in her form.[57]
93. The lustre of her scarf had the purity of the sheen of her jewels that were devoid of all oily touch, artificial water or coating.[58] The crowd of her girl friends was like her own reflection flashing in the limpid brilliance of the diamonds on her dress.[59]
94. A bee, Cupid’s messenger, coming with joy at the scent of her beauty-paint, seemed to speak something secretly in her ears, creeping on her lotus ear-ring.
95. She was looking at the fun provided by the clash of the gleams of the precious stones of her ornaments, having conflicting colours. She had eyebrows gracefully curved, as if they were set in motion by Cupid, mistaking them for his bow.[60]
96. She had her limbs pervaded by Cupid delighted; was accompanied by a row of friends with hands like young sprays of twigs, and was longed for by those kings: like as the Beauty of the spring, redolent with sweet-scented flowers and breezes, with rows of bees sleeping at the tips of tender branches, is desired even by the wishing trees of heaven.[61]
97. Owing to her body being tinged with the rays of her jewels that had yellow, white, pink and azure hues, she was rendering useless the paints of Gorocanā, sandal, saffron and musk applied to her body.[62]
98. Not believing Cupid to be able to conquer Nala with his flowery bow, she was offering him a rainbow, as it were, a creation of the rays of her own ornamental gems.[63]
99. Below the ornaments, upon her scarves; below the scarves, in the thick effulgence of her gems; and, nowhere in fact was any room left by the Creator, for the eyes of the royal crowd to feast upon.
100. First the showers of flowers falling from the sky, then the bees, and then her face tumed aside for fear of them prevented her being seen. Behold, the Creator’s effort to thwart the desires of men!
101. From the comer of her eye, she seemed to let loose a stream of camphor and musk[64] towards the face of a girl friend; which face the kings made the guest of their desire, each saying, ‘I wish I were that.’[65]
102. She was destroying the pride, which moonbeams had in their heart with the rays of her teeth, slightly revealed by the throb of her lips about to smile; rays that delighted those day lotus blossoms, the faces of the kings.
103. In the guise of the transparent gems set on her ornaments on every limb, she had, as it were, so many eyes of people motionless on each several limb on which they were fixed. She had the gloom of her navel thickened in its lustre by the rays of the emerald flashing at the tip of her pearlstring.
104. Above her was the gaiety of a dance executed by rows of white Cāmara whisks, looking like swans of diverse kinds; as if they wished to imitate the beauty of the shiver of the Light of the Moon astonished at her smile, the quintessence of all that was white.[66]
105. To the nymphs who were singing panegyrics of her limbs, but stopped in the middle in the course of their recital, she was offering a present, the sense of shame worn by herself as an ornament of her heart.[67]
106. She was surpassing the stars with the lustre of her teeth, the moon with the radiance of her face, and the sky with the sheen of her hair; was there a king whose eyes she regaled not richly[68] with honey?
107. More wonderful were her bare limbs than the limbs that had ornaments on; beyond praise was her directly visible[69] beauty. The row of kings then absorbed[70] her with their glances as she entered the assembly in a palanquin.
108. No king was there whose limbs, as he wondered at the beauty of her figure, did not leap up with joy, bristling with the rising tips of the hairs.
109. Who there, looking at Damayantī, did not snap his forefinger, its tip being pressed with the ball of the thumb and the middle of the middle-finger?
110. Or, who in that assembly was the king, who, on seeing her with eyes like Khanjana birds, did not raise his eyebrows high, nodding his head again and again?
111. Then the kings, noticing Damayantī as she came to the Svayaṃvara floor, said thus in joy, their tongues sluggish with disjointed words, owing to the troubled state of their minds.
112. “This maiden surpassing the nymphs in beauty has destroyed the distaste of the gods for the earth; the gods thinking, ‘Let not the earth be empty on account of men travelling to heaven, having performed sacrificial rites, with the hope of winning the nymphs Rambhā and the others.’[71]
113. “That beauty of hers, hearing about which from people we have come from this and that corner of the earth, was far inferior to this cream of beauty which is now perceived.
114. “Where does the great ocean of the sentiment known as love exist? Or else, from what ocean did this Lakṣmī[72] emerge, a treasure-house of beauty’s art?
115. “Damayantī’s face is the ‘nectar-rayed’ moon itself, evidently the ‘hare-marked’ moon of heaven is called so by implication.[73] Her eyebrows form the real bow of Cupid, whereas flowers are called so on account of the existence (in them) of a mere touch of the excellence of her eyebrows.[74]
116. “Does the fair one hold her ear-rings as two ring-shaped targets for Cupid the archer? Do the arrows discharged by him, right and left, pass through them?
117. “She is spreading, alas, Cupid’s disgrace in the shape of the two blue lotus blossoms decorating her ears; for verily will the wicked, on account of them, declare Cupid to have missed his aim, the ear-rings.[75]
118. “Let Cupid to-day welcome Damayantī’s eyebrows as his bow, held in the middle inside his grasp,[76] forsaking his old flowery bow, full of dust, and frequented by bees and worms.
119. “Each year the Creator, laying by somewhere lotus blossoms in the winter and Khanjana birds during the rains, takes their quintessence from them. With it, richly he maintains the beauty of her eyes.[77]
120. “The Creator established in her eyes the umpireship of two bees, male and female, serving as her eye-balls, as if he thought, ‘Let people ask this pair of bees the difference between lotus blossoms and eyes like these; they are familiar with the merits of both.’[78]
121. “Two palaces did the age[79] that is devoted to Cupid and Rati build for them, residing in her heart. Who does not guess her breasts to be two rounded cupolas of gold flashing at their top?[80]
122. “Did her arms severally take from the vanquished lotus-stalk its flower as a tribute?[81] Who on the earth doth not regard this flower as Beauty’s abode, and who are the people who ḍo not praise it as her hand?
123. “The lotus that grows on water is a phantom produced by the lily. The (genuine) lotus is that which has its habitation at the fore-end of her arm;[82] for it is thorny with sharp-pointed nails by reason of its rising from a thorny stalk.[83]
124. “(To the question) if among mortals there is a maiden fit to be compared with her, the fact of our not getting elsewhere a worthy bride is the reply; if there were such a maiden in heaven or the nether regions, there would not be this concourse of people from all the worlds.
125. “Whether we salute Brahma’s hands or not, even his fancy touched not this work of art, much less his hands. Spoiled, indeed, it would be by a touch: worthy it is of Cupid alone owing to his incorporeal form.
126. “This tender maid was not created by the Creator with his hands, rough from handling Kuśa grass; nor did he create her even with his mind; she—a stream of the sentiment of Eros; he—a tree on a desert path for Quietude’s repose.
127. “Did the Creator weigh her, raising her up with his hand, to see if she was heavy in the region of her hips or in her breasts? Did she for that reason have the graceful play of the three fleshy folds of her waist caused by the three intervening gaps of his fingers?[84]
128. “The moon, having created her, her limbs being made of the butter rising from its own nectar,[85] while her yellow tint beamed by degrees, itself became her face, not to be made with the drowsy lotus.[86]
129. “The beautiful Spring was her artificer; with the south wind did he create her breath; with flowers he made her limbs; her voice he made with the cuckoo’s ‘Fifth.’[87]
130. “She is Cupid’s creation, not the Creator’s; by no other craftsman can her artificer be surpassed; but the Creator is surpassed even by the age[88] that is Cupid’s henchman in producing beauty.[89]
131. “Cupid’s work it is to discipline the lips and throat of Bṛhaspati himself, while they describe her, by destroying the pride of their narrative power;[90] also to cause repentance to those who have attained salvation by forsaking the world.”[91]
132. Then Indra, in order to describe Damayantī, whose entire figure was absorbed by the multitude of his eyes,[92] while the kings had their eyes fixed on each several limb of hers, adorned his moonlike mouth with the graceful play of the art of wordplay, drenched with the nectar of a lyric verse.
133. “She is white with her smile, and a gazelle by her eyes; a lyrist with the beauty of her melodious voice; and nothing less than gold by virtue of the lustre of her body: while by reason of the rest of her limbs no other slim damsel comes to my mind.”[93]
134. Suspiciously looked at by Nala, while uttering this praise close by, Indra removed his suspicion by expounding, in respect of his statement, a meaning applicable to human beings.[94]
135. Alas, making himself the substitute of Nala, and even becoming Nala for the sake of the end in view, why did Indra, who gave an explanation like that, retain his original evil nature?[95]
136. ‘There, there, she is going by that passage, beautiful in her dress; she is nearing, nearing the altar, this Urvaśī of the earth’—such joyful shouts made by the people thwarted the gain to Nala’s heart from hearing those excellent descriptions of Damayantī.
137. Epilogue. [Śrīhīra, the ornamental diamond of the diadem of great poets, and Māmalladevī had as their son Śrīharṣa whose passions were subdued; in the beautiful epic. The Story of Nala, composed by him whose labours in the field of logic as well were unrivalled, the tenth canto, brilliant by nature, has come to an end].
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
i.e., became empty.
[3]:
Siddhārtha ‘successful’ means also mustard seeds. The king pressed between crowds before and after is compared to mustard seeds pressed in a machine. He despaired of being in time for the Svayaṃvara owing to the obstruction of the crowd.
[4]:
Lit. the beauty of the face.
[5]:
The oncoming kings are fancied as the husbands of the various directions; the dusty appearance of the latter as the paleness of women forsaken by their lovers.
[6]:
The total number of the lords of the directions is eight. The remaining four are mentioned in Verses 11-14.
[7]:
The south-western direction.
[9]:
.i.e., the god could not induce the animal to carry him to the Svayaṃvara, as it was unwilling to appear before Damayantī, her eyes being more beautiful than its own.
[10]:
He is the lord of the north.
[12]:
The lord of the north-eastern direction.
[13]:
Brahmā, the creator, is called Grandfather.
[14]:
i.e., the Svayaṃvara.
[15]:
i.e., Yama, Varuṇa and Agni. They now assumed Nala’s form to cheat Damayantī.
[16]:
As the gods live on oblations offered to them in the fire, they are called “analānana”: “fire-mouthed”, which means also “possessing a face not like that of Nala” (a+nalānana). Thus by virtue of the pun they were twice ‘analānana’, and incurred, as it were, the literary fault ‘repetition.’
[17]:
i.e., Urvaśī.
[18]:
i.e., the gods tried to make themselves beautiful with the essential portion of the charms of Purūravas, Cupid and the moon, all of them models of beauty.
[19]:
Pārijāta was the best among the five celestial trees belonging to Indra, from whom it was taken away by Kṛṣṇa and planted in the courtyard of Satyabhāmā, his mistress. Here, the absent Nala is compared to the Pārijāta tree transplanted elsewhere, while the four gods are compared to the remaining trees.
[20]:
Here, the earth.
[21]:
i.e., courtesies offered to each king individually, unseen by the others.
[22]:
i.e., all were treated alike, and no one found in the reception accorded to him any special mark of favour or any hint which enabled him to guess whether Damayantī would be his.
[23]:
Absence of perspiration, winklessness and evergreen garlands are characteristics of the gods, which the kings shared with them, as explained in the verse.
[24]:
Sanskrit being the language of the gods, the latter spoke Sanskrit as well as the mortal kings.
[25]:
The illusion of having won her in dreams is fancied as being purposely created by Damayantī in the minds of her suitors as a generous compensation for her inability to choose them.
[26]:
As is well-known, the Aśvins, famous for their beauty, were two in number.
[27]:
i.e., by suggesting that an abnormal creature had arrived. Between Verses 41 and 42 there is another verse in the Nirnayasagara edition, which is, however, omitted by some commentators as being a mere repetition of verse 41.
[28]:
i.e., the four gods disguised as Nala.
[29]:
i.e., by suggesting that there are many others like him.
[30]:
The mother of Purūravas.
[31]:
i.e., it was foolish for the gods to hope to win Damayantī with Nala [—?] as their rival. See Notes for another meaning.
[32]:
The verse explains why Nala felt contempt for the gods and ignored their words.
[33]:
See Notes for the allusion.
[34]:
See Vocab. under “dvādaśātman”.
[35]:
This is meant to emphasise the brilliant sunshine in which the Svayaṃvara was going to be held.
[36]:
i.e., Meru.
[37]:
i.e., the moon was not prevented from seeing the Svayaṃvara by its daily duties; for as the left eye of Viṣṇu, it was present along with the latter.
[38]:
Bṛhaspati is supposed to be the founder of the Cārvāka philosophy.
[39]:
Śukrācārya was the preceptor of the demons.
[40]:
The beautiful youths are fancied as so many forms assumed by Cupid as a protection against any further outrage by Śiva.
[41]:
i.e., Meru.
[42]:
i.e., while they were paying obeisance to Viṣṇu.
[43]:
The three folds of the waist are fancied as the three Vedas, and the black streak of hair spreading out from them is fancied as the Atharvaveda which, too, is “black”, and supposed to take its origin from the other three Vedas.
[45]:
The greater portion of Sanskrit metres, in which syllables are counted.
[46]:
The joint between the upper and lower sections of each arm is fancied as the pause between the two halves of a verse.
[47]:
[48]:
i.e., the pearlstring reached as far as her lap.
[49]:
i.e., Pūrva-mīmāṃsā and Uttara-mīmāṃsā.
[50]:
The teeth are thirty-two in number; sixteen topics mentioned twice would also make that number. Hence the two rows of teeth represent the Nyāya system with its sixteen topics enumerated twice.
[51]:
[53]:
Supposed to bring luck.
[54]:
See Vocab. under “vṛttasamāptilipi”.
[55]:
Ref. to philosophical doctrines. See Appendix I.
[56]:
Lit. being some one subservient to the command of etc.
[57]:
For the construction see Footnote on Verse 107.
[58]:
i.e., her scarf was as bright as her jewels which were free from all kinds of artificial embellishment.
[59]:
Lit...... her own reflection staying in the water of the lustre of the diamonds etc.
[60]:
i.e., the eyebrows were exactly like Cupid’s flowery bow.
[61]:
The Kalpa trees.
[62]:
Gorocanā, sandal etc. are respectively yellow, white etc. For Gorocanā see Vocabulary.
[63]:
Cf. 7.19.
[64]:
Camphor is white, and musk black. The idea is, she was casting at her friend glances tinged with the black and white lustre of her eyes.
[65]:
i.e., the kings would rather become the face of that girl to receive the favour of Damayantī’s glances.
[66]:
The glistening light of the moon is personified and fancied as shaking its head in amazement at the extreme whiteness of her smile, while the white Cāmara whisks playing over her head are fancied as imitating the movements of this imaginary head of the Light of the Moon. Lit...... imitate the beauty of the shaking of the head by the Light of the Moon.
[67]:
The idea is, the nymphs set themselves to sing the praise of Damayantī’s beauty, but as it was beyond their power of description they could not proceed, and were ashamed to have to stop in the middle. As, however, shame or bashfulness is regarded as an ornament of women, it is fancied that it was offered to the nymphs by Damayantī herself from her own heart, as a gift in return for their praise. The imagery is that of high personages giving away jewels and ornaments worn by themselves to minstrels singing their praise; in 19. 65 Damayantī actually offers such presents.
[68]:
Lit. up to the neck.
[69]:
i.e. uncovered.
[70]:
This verb governs all the epithets of Damayantī in the preceding fifteen verses. It should be noted that in the original these epithets are in the accusative, and many of them are Bahuvrīhi compounds, which it would be too cumbrous to render as relative clauses as is usually done.
[71]:
The gods attracted by Damayantī’s beauty are fancied as coming to the earth to replace the mortal kings, who, in their turn, attracted by the celestial nymphs, go to heaven in large numbers by virtue of the religious merit accruing from the performance of sacrifices.
[72]:
Damayantī is fancied as a second Lakṣmī. The traditional Lakṣmī, the goddess of wealth and beauty, rose from the ocean of milk.
[73]:
i.e., the word “moon” (sudhāṃśu “nectar-rayed”) signifies primarily Damayantī’s face; only secondarily by implication does it signify the moon of heaven, which is usually called “śaśāṅka”: “hare-marked”; just as in “gaṅgāyāṃ ghoṣaḥ”: “the cattle farm on the bank of the Gaṅgā”, the primary meaning of Gaṅgā is the river of that name, and only by implication (lakṣaṇā) it means “gaṅgātaṭa”: “the bank of the Gaṅgā”.
[74]:
See also Notes.
[75]:
In the preceding verse the ear-rings have been described as Cupid’s targets. Now it is fancied that, as lotus blossoms are often used by Cupid as his arrows, the two blue lotus blossoms, stuck round Damayantī’s ears, will lead one to think that Cupid failed to shoot these arrows of his through the ear-rings with the result that they got stuck in her ears. The blue lotuses thus blacken Cupid’s fame as an archer.
[76]:
Lit. which in its middle portion holds the fist. Damayantī’s eyebrows are fancied as forming Cupid’s bow; but as there is a gap in the middle, it is explained that the middle portion of the bow is invisible, because it is held within his grasp.
[77]:
Lotus blossoms and Khañjana birds are regarded as models of beauty for the eyes of a woman. Damayantī’s eyes are, as it were, two lotus blossoms or two Khañjana birds; but as the former disappear in the winter and the latter migrate at the approach of the rains, the poet fancies that the Creator, at the approach of the seasons uncongenial to them, keeps both of them concealed, and taking the best portion of both, sustains in all seasons the beauty of Damayantī’s eyes. Lit. nourishes her two eyes.
[78]:
The idea is, the eye-balls are really two bees which have come to stay in Damayantī’s eyes. Any one who questions these bees, who know all about lotus blossoms, about the difference between Damayantī’s eyes and the latter will receive an impartial decision to the effect that it is Damayantī’s eyes which have the superior beauty.
[79]:
i.e., youth.
[80]:
i.e., the breasts are to be regarded as the cupolas of two palaces built inside her heart by Youth for Cupid and his wife Rati.
[81]:
It is fancied that each of Damayantī’s arms vanquished the lotus-stalk in a contest of beauty; and each, taking its flower—the lotus—as a tribute (kara), made it a hand (kara).
[82]:
i.e., it is Damayantī’s hand that is the real lotus; the lotus that originates from śambara (water) is but a phantom, Śambara being also the name of a demon famous as a magician.
[83]:
A genuine lotus, originating as it does from a stalk which has on it small thorns, ought logically to be thorny, according to the principle that the properties of the cause are present in the effect; but the lotus that grows on water is without any thorns—a proof against its being genuine. Damayantī’s hand, on the contrary, has thorns in the shape of its nails, a proof that it is the real lotus. The phrase “utkaṇṭakāt nālāt”: “from a thorny stalk”, applied to Damayantī’s hand, means really “from the stalk (of the fore-arm) bristling with thrills”, “kaṇṭaka” meaning both “thorn” and “thrill”.
[84]:
Four fingers pressed with force on a soft, fleshy surface would cause a swelling of the three intervening strips of flesh. The three fleshy folds of Damayantī’s waist are fancied as being thus produced by the Creator while holding her up by the waist with his hands to measure her weight.
[85]:
It will be remembered that the moon is believed to be full of nectar.
[86]:
The moon, instead of itself becoming Damayantī’s face, could have made it with the day lotus but for the fact ṭhat the latter shrinks up in the presence of the moon.
[87]:
See Vocab. under “pikapañcama”.
[88]:
i.e., youth.
[89]:
The Creator or Brahmā is the maker of childhood; it is Youth who is the Creator of beauty. As Brahmā is, in this respect, inferior even to Youth who is only a servant of Cupid, he could not have created Damayantī.
[90]:
i.e., Cupid created Damayantī in order to wound Bṛhaspati’s pride, by presenting him with something which it was beyond his power to describe.
[91]:
i.e., by putting before them something more blissful than salvation, viz., Damayantī’s beauty. Obviously the jīvanmuktas are meant.
[92]:
Ref. to Indra’s thousand eyes.
[93]:
[94]:
When Nala heard the words Gaurī, Hariṇī, etc., he at once knew them to be names of lymphs and suspected the speaker to be Indra disguised as himself; but the crafty Indra quickly explained that Gaurī, Hariṇī etc., meant respectively ‘white’, ‘gazelle’ etc. (see the preceding verse), and had nothing to do with nymphs.